Lyon end Remy pursuit

Ligue 1 powerhouse Lyon have officially ended their summer-long pursuit of Nice forward Loic Remy but remain determined to add firepower to their squad for the forthcoming season.

The Les Gones released a statement on Wednesday in which they bemoaned the “procrastination” and “outbidding tactics” of their Ligue 1 rivals as they attempted to secure the signature of 22-year-old Remy.

Lyon have put in a number of bids for the France international, who they sold to Nice for eight million euros last summer, but they have all been batted away by the southerners.

Lyon’s statement, released on the club’s website read: “The club recall that when it accepted the conditions demanded by Nice, namely 15m euros plus the transfer of Anthony Mounier who is valued at 4m euros, the Azureen board in the first instance declared they were no longer interested after all in this transfer before in the second case raising the selling price to 16.5m euros and then finally in the third instance readjusting it to 16m euros

“As a consequence, Lyon have decided to give up on this transfer for which it had nevertheless accepted to make an extremely substantial financial effort.”

Lyon have only three out-and-out strikers in their squad – Lisandro Lopez, Frederic Piquionne and Yannis Tafer – and coach Claude Puel has made it clear he is on the look-out for a fourth.

The deposed champions’ attempts to sign Toulouse’s Andre-Pierre Gignac, the top scorer in Ligue 1 last season, have also failed.

The Lyon statement read: “It (the club) is pursuing negotiations taken on at the same time with other clubs and with other players with the hope of quickly finalising the arrival of a new striker.”